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Laser Cutter Exhaust

laser-cutter-exhaust

Someone on the Milwaukee Makerspace mailing list posted an email with the subject line Laser cutter expert, so I could not ignore it. The person was specifically asking about exhaust systems. Above is a photo of what I built for the 40 watt laser cutter in my basement, and below is most of my reply.

laser-stock-exhaust

The exhaust from my laser cutter is a 4″ diameter vent hose, which I connect to a 6″ hose with an adapter I got from Home Depot. (In this photo you can sort of see the white plastic piece that attaches to the back of the laser cutter. It has a small and inadequate fan that came with it.)

laser-inline-fan

The vent hose coming out the back of the laser cutter connects to an inline fan that is mounted to the ceiling…

laser-exhaust-coupler

The output of the inline fan goes to another step down adapter and then a quick connector that twists to lock into place.

I’ve also got an AC Variable Voltage Converter which allows me to run the blower at lower speeds if desired. (I sometimes dial down for paper, thinner material, etc. to reduce suction and noise.)

laser-exhaust-mounting

I then have a basement window that I replaced with a piece of wood on the outside and pink foam on the inside which has a hole in it (covered with a laser cut screen) on the outside, and on the inside the quick connect that I connect up when I use the laser cutter.

This just gets all the fumes out of the tiny room the laser cutter is in. It doesn’t scrub the air. I am not cutting for hours at a time. My main goal was to not have my spouse come home and say “why does the whole house smell like melted plastic!?” and I think I’ve achieved that goal.

Here’s the list of all the components I could remember:

Oh, and if you want to see a real laser cutter exhaust system, or at least the details of building one over many years, check out lasercutterventingsystem on the Milwaukee Makerspace wiki.

Update: I did add a HEPA Air Purifier to this setup about six months later, just to help with any residual smells in the air.

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PrintPi 01 at Milwaukee Makerspace

printpi01-browser

It’s hard to believe I’ve been working on “Time Lapse Bot” for almost 10 years… I mean, you’d think I’d be further along by now! ;)

But seriously folks, the Time Lapse Bot project(s) got much better once the Raspberry Pi camera module came along. It allowed for a small, low-cost, portable camera device with great capabilities. I’ve been using a version to monitor my printer at home for quite a while now, and I turned my old PowerBook version into the Milwaukee Makerspace Webcam long ago, but in recent times it’s seen the most use to… monitor prints at the space.

printpi01-setup

So Mark, our 3D Printing Area Champion, asked about building some Pi camera rigs for print monitoring. So I did. I haven’t really built a proper enclosure, or made it very adjustable, but so far it works.

Basically, it captures a photo every minute, which you can see by connecting to the Pi with a web browser while on the network at the space. If you are not at the space, you can visit a web page that will show a new image every five minutes. (There’s a script that does an SCP of the file to a web server.) The other fun thing it does is compile all of yesterday’s images into a time lapse video you can download. Oh yeah, you can browser through old images and videos on the Pi when on the network, though they get deleted after X number of days to save space on the inserted thumb drive.

printpi01-back

Some scrap wood gets it just about at the right height to see the print bed. (Well, we wedged it up a bit… new version coming soon!) I’ve also got a second one in the works, along with a few enhancements I won’t reveal quite yet.

printpi01-mobile

Since there’s no screen on the Pi you need to pull up a browser on a device and check that it’s pointing where you want it pointing. I had a screen working with one of these and then one day it just decided to never work again. Annoying, so that means no screen for now.

And yes, I really do love the Raspberry Pi.

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Return of the RED Matte Box Rail Mount

red-matte-box-rail-mount-stl

NOTE: Want to purchase one?
See our shop for a RED Matte Box Rail Mount

Many years ago (approximately five) I was using a RED ONE Digital Cinema Camera at my job, and I’d often use digital fabrication to create camera accessories and parts. One of the parts I made was my own version of a RED Matte Box Rail Mount.

I guess I never got around to uploading the file to Thingiverse or Youmagine, but I did have a blog post online since 2014, so I guess it shouldn’t have been too surprising when someone emailed me asking if I could sell them one. Since I 3D print things all the time, I let them know I could certainly print one and send it off to them, which I did.

red-matte-box-rail-mount

I’m glad Sarah is enjoying a cost effective way of holding her matte box in place. If you need something designed and created, let me know… I might have already done it and have the model sitting around waiting to be fabricated again.

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Quick 3D Sketches

stand-01

I’ve found that I prefer firing up OpenSCAD and writing some lines of code to actually trying to sketch simple 3D objects on paper. I grabbed a notepad and thought I could knock out a sketch, but then decided I preferred a model I could spin around and easily edit, and in no time I had what I needed.

stand-02

I’ve found that mocking up cabinets in OpenSCAD works for me. These are not final plans to fabricate something, just quick sketches to communicate ideas with others.

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NOMCON 2019 Stage Backdrop

nomcon-map

While I’m sad I’ll be missing NOMCON (the first annual Nation of Makers conference) this year, I’m glad I could still contribute in some way.

nomcon-parts

Dan Schneiderman, one of the leads for Maker Faire Rochester, organized a group to create pieces of a US map that will serve as the stage backdrop for the conference. He sent me the files for pieces to be cut and then we were free to attach whatever we wanted to the front, though there was a color scheme to (try to) adhere to.

nomcon-piece-03

I cut the pieces on the 150 watt laser cutter at Brinn Labs. Since I didn’t have 1/2″ plywood I used 1/4″ Baltic Birch which we then glued together to get the proper thickness.

nomcon-piece-02

I had a few ideas (one involving wax) but ended up cutting up a bunch of old Make magazines (ironic, I know) after carefully selecting purple images that would match the designated color of my piece.

I spray glued all the paper pieces and stuck them down to the wood, overlapping as needed. I then trimmed the pieces that were overhanging the edges, and then applied polyurethane to protect and beautify the surface.

nomcon-piece-01

Here’s my final piece, which is #69. Carl and Kathy H. at Milwaukee Makerspace took care of the rest of the pieces. (Hopefully they got photos of theirs as well!)

I expect to see some photos of Adam Savage and Dale Dougherty standing in front of this!